Add repeating text 6-8 times on a UV Sphere using texture instead of mesh
Sphere or rounded cube, from Generated coordinates, the Image texture can be projected not as FLAT, but drop down and find, BOX. Blend 0.0 is fine for you but you'll need to tweak some polygons in the UV Editor to flip the numbers around correctly.

I'd love to make a video of this if anyone's still having trouble. It's a great question! Also, don't use the image directly as a color; use it to control the FACTOR in a Mix Color Node between two other colors or black and white.

You can also use this image texture to mix between two shaders in a Mix Shader Node. Using a .png directly can lead to odd problems that you don't need to experience. If it's distorting, ensure your modifiers are applied if they distort the mesh.